Alright, my sisters! I’m guessing we’ve all seen ‘Forever’ or at least heard some adorable gist about the show—I mean, it’s been on ‘Top TV Shows in Nigeria Today’ for 2 weeks now, so you have no excuse. For me, this show struck a chord.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane.
Were you ever swaddled up in an intense romantic relationship as a teen? Maybe there was a boy or girl who made your heart do backflips in between Civic Education classes. The one you thought was your final bus stop at love, your soul mate, your forever. It could have been a friendship, even, one that not only blurred the lines between platonic and romantic, but also felt like it would last a lifetime. Maybe the love was so fierce that the adults in your life had to intervene.
If you were ever caught up in those, can you remember the overwhelming, complex feelings that came with those relationships, and how they felt immense in the grand scheme of things? When my favourite teenage relationship came to an end, I couldn’t sleep well for weeks, and I was convinced I would never find love again.
“Forever” takes us right back to those days – the butterflies, the confusion, the “nobody understands me!” moments, and even the awkward bits about growing up. The series explores a no-filter look at young love and all the angsty, yet endearing drama that accompanies it. Keisha Clark (played by Lovie Simone) and Justin Edwards (played by Michael Cooper Jr.)’s love story transported me back to those chaotic, beautiful, and cringeworthy teenage feelings that I thought I had outgrown, but never truly did. Plus, the music? *Chefs Kiss*—it would have made a superb soundtrack for my teenage years.
While Forever is set in America, some things are just universal. That feeling of your world tilting on its axis for someone? Yeah, that’s global. So if your inner young woman is already feeling a little nostalgic, here are eight moments that’ll speak straight to the heart of your younger self.
1. Falling Hard for the First Time
As teenagers, we barely had standards in romantic relationships. At the barest minimum, the person must not be facially challenged. You could meet or speak to someone for the first time, and based on the initial conversations you have, or their attractiveness level, you immediately start planning how many kids you will birth for them. Ahhh, the simplicity of teenage love.
Though Keisha and Justin were in the same school as kids, their love sparked when they made eye contact at a New Year’s Party, started talking and shared a kiss. Mind you, these teenagers hadn’t seen each other since kindergarten. After the party, it tortured them whenever they weren’t in good terms. They literally went from 0-100 in a blink of an eye. That heady, overwhelming feeling of liking someone so much it almost hurts, yup, we can relate to that.
2. Stressing About Which Uni You’d Go To (Like Your Life Depended On It)
Another thing Forever captured so well was the way Justin and Keisha stressed endlessly about which university they wanted to get into. The pressure felt suffocating, like your entire future hinged on a single exam score or acceptance letter. Watching it play out reminded me of how, as teenagers, we over-prepared for final WAEC exams, SATs, UTME, and every other big test, as if it were life or death.
In those moments, no one could convince you that you’d ever be okay if you didn’t get into your dream school or pass with straight A’s. The anxiety felt permanent, like failing a paper meant failing at life. However, looking back, those results were rarely as definitive as we thought. Life always found new ways to unfold. Forever reminds you of how intense that pressure felt back then, and how even when it doesn’t go the way you planned, you still figure it out.
3. Nicknaming Your Private Parts
Whether it was your boyfriend’s bits or your own, naming body parts was peak teenage behaviour. Cringe? Absolutely. But also very on brand for a time when purity culture had us in a chokehold and our parents had full access to our phones. Staying low-key meant lots of code names.
4. Believing “Forever” is Actually, Like, Forever
The sheer conviction of young love—take me back! When Keisha and Justin say “forever,” they mean it with every fibre of their being. That passionate, slightly naive belief that this love is the one, the ultimate, the end-all, be-all.
Remember when Keisha was doodling the famous love game called ‘FLAMES’ during classes? Our inner teen, who played it as well, carved a few initials into a desk or doodled our crush’s surname with our first name a thousand times, knows that feeling intimately.
5. Hiding Secrets From Your Parents
Is the teenage experience even complete if you didn’t tell a few white lies to your parents, just to protect your independence or keep them from worrying or being mad at you? Forever made me realise that, in some cases, if we’d been a little more transparent about certain things, we might have made better, safer decisions.
Take Keisha, for instance. While it’s completely understandable why she kept the revenge porn incident to herself, the truth is, no child should ever have to carry a burden like that alone. In no world would a parent knowingly let their daughter go to prom with the same boy who leaked her sex tape. But somehow, in her teenage mind, Keisha believed she was protecting her mom by staying silent. And that’s the kind of reckless decision we all rationalized as smart when our frontal lobes were still very much under construction.
6. The Awkwardness of First-Time Sex
Another thing Forever handles with rare honesty is its portrayal of teenage sex. It’s not shot through a glossy, romanticised lens or framed as some life-changing, sensual awakening. It’s awkward, tentative and more importantly, layered with subtle pressures that most teenage girls know all too well.
Like the moment Keisha unconsciously felt like she owed Justin head because he bought her something. It wasn’t explicitly demanded, but it hung heavy in the air for her — that quiet, transactional expectation girls are socialized into long before we even realize it’s happening.
Or that quiet but powerful moment when Justin asks Keisha about her sexual boundaries, and instead of stating what she’s comfortable with, she responds along the line of “I’m okay with what you’re okay with” It’s a line that feels casual in the moment but carries so much weight. For many teenage girls, there’s the real risk and very real fear of being labelled wayward or fast for asserting their own desires or limits, so even when asked directly, it often feels safer to defer to what the boy wants, rather than risk judgment.
Then there’s the heavy petting in the cinema, which perfectly captures that combination of excitement and uncertainty common in new love. And when Keisha and Justin finally have sex, it doesn’t end with some mind-blowing orgasm or cinematic afterglow. It’s not some rite of passage that transforms her into a confident, self-assured woman overnight. It’s just… sex. Ordinary, a little clumsy, and exciting if you like the person. And that’s what makes it feel so real. Because for so many teenage girls, those early experiences aren’t about self-discovery or empowerment. They’re about navigating expectations, figuring out what you want in real time, and often pretending to be more okay with things than you actually are.
7. The Ride-or-Die Best Friend Confidante
Seriously, where would we be without our teen besties? The ones who listened to us for hours, dissecting every interaction, offering questionable advice, and standing in solidarity with us against our heartthrob.
Chloe blocking Justin in solidarity with Keisha? That’s a real one right there. Their friendship, with all its honesty and support, instantly reminded my inner teen of my own go-to person for all the drama, secrets, and heartbreaks. The kind of friend who didn’t need the full story to pick a side, who showed up for you even when you didn’t know how to ask.
8. Navigating Parents & Their (Sometimes) Unsolicited Opinions
Keisha’s conversations with her mom about sex and relationships were important. Justin’s conversations with his dad about sex and dating too. The movie showed those candid, sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately important family dynamics that our inner teen remembers all too well: the eye-rolls, the “they just don’t get it” sighs, and maybe, just maybe, a moment of reluctant understanding
